


Carry Me Slowly, My Sunlight

by LittlePageAndBird



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Darillium (Doctor Who), F/F, Fluff, Gay, Idiots in Love, Marriage, Parenthood, Post-Library River Song, Pregnancy, Space Wives, Time Tots | Babies (Doctor Who)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24541123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittlePageAndBird/pseuds/LittlePageAndBird
Summary: The Doctor marvels quietly at their baby on the screen, the beginnings of tiny hands and feet and the bump of a nose, until tears well in her eyes. “Hello,” she murmurs.This had been waiting for her since the day she’d met River; since that last agonising goodbye at sunrise, too. It feels with a sudden startling clarity like all those tangled timelines in between were always leading them to this.“This is - this is brilliant!"
Relationships: The Doctor/River Song, Thirteenth Doctor/River Song
Comments: 19
Kudos: 152





	1. Time For A New Adventure

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> This work is a follow-on of sorts from my fic, These Colours Fade For You Only - please give it a read!  
> A summary to catch you up: Thirteen has saved River from the Library using her unlimited Timeless Child regenerations, leaving River with lots of future faces to look forward to and giving them a new life together.  
> Series title from Hozier's Sunlight. Hope you enjoy it.

The Doctor sits in the little police-box alcove by the Tardis doors which are propped open to the stars, swinging her legs in deep space as she watches a distant supernova and tries to think about things that aren’t River. 

Admittedly, it’s not shaping up to be her most successful endeavour. The fact that her wife is sleeping upstairs - alone, at her own insistence - and not snuggled beside her isn’t helping matters.

They’ve scrawled a list of all the new places they want to visit together across the old Tardis blackboards, but are yet to cross any off. In the weeks since she’s been not-dead River has stayed with her, but she hasn’t been too keen on going out - which normally the Doctor wouldn’t mind at all, except she doesn’t really appear to be enjoying staying in, either.

She draws her feet in and walks them up the opposite door, slumping down until her chin squashes into her chest. She can’t seem to get much right lately. Her cooking leaves River feeling sick, their conversations lead to bickering more often than kissing, she gets tired and cuts short the elaborate dates she plans.

She slides the wedding ring that she wears on a chain around her neck on and off her thumb, thinking. Maybe she’s losing her touch. If she ever had one.

“The Calderon supernova?”

She whips her head around at the sudden voice, straightening up hopefully. River is standing with her hip propped against the console, hands in her pockets. The corner of her mouth curls with a smile. “You old romantic.”

A very long time ago, just after Demon’s Run, she’d taken her to a tiny uninhabited planet not far from where they’re now floating to watch the very same supernova from below. River had been far older, of course - all eye rolls and _Spoilers!_ \- but the Doctor had spent the whole night enraptured by her, giddy and in love with the knowledge that she was her best friends’ daughter. She wishes her Ponds could see them now.

“You know me far too well.” She smiles up at her wife warmly. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“I was planning to.” River comes into the alcove and the Doctor crosses her legs to make room opposite her. “But... a thing happened.” She settles on the floor with a soft sigh, pulling a bulky object from her pocket as she does. 

The Doctor quickly recognises it as her PDA. “Haven’t seen that for a while.” She nods to the device as River holds it tight in both hands. “Not really much to scan around here.”

“No.” Her voice is hushed, head bowed as she looks at whatever the screen in her hands is showing her. “Other than myself.”

“Why would you be scanning yourself?” 

She doesn’t answer for a moment - when she does the Doctor notices the words sticking, like she’s finding them hard to get out. “I knew something wasn’t right. I thought I just needed more time to heal. But then I realised I’ve felt like this since before the Library.” She shrugs. “I’d put it down to grief.”

“Felt like what?”

“Shit.” She laughs without smiling. “Everything aches. I feel so tired, _all_ the time. And I know I’ve never exactly been known for my patience, but every little thing makes me angry right now.” She smiles wryly. “You don’t have to pretend you haven’t noticed; I know most of it has been directed at you.”

“I might have been worrying about you, a bit,” she admits carefully, wincing an apology.

River raises an eyebrow. “You know I hate it when you do that.”

“I know.” She returns the little smile her wife offers. “You haven’t seemed like yourself lately. I thought... you might still be cross with me for saving you.”

“I’m not cross with you, sweetie.” Her gaze falls back to the PDA screen, and her voice drops to barely above a whisper. “For once in my life, I have nothing to be angry about.”

“What did you find, River?” she asks, swallowing a sharp lump of fear crawling its way up her throat. She nods to the device. “What is it telling you?” 

River looks down at the PDA for a minute before she clutches it to her chest like she’s guarding it. “Do you remember… a conversation that we had, once,” she starts, her words slow and careful. “On Darillium. About doing something that normal married couples often do, when they have a chunk of linear time to play with. And we agreed... it was something that we both wanted. Together.”

She says the last part like it’s a question. The Doctor nods.

“So we... tried,” River goes on. “And we kept trying. But nothing happened.” She swallows heavily and casts her eyes down, scratching her fingernails over the grooves in the PDA. Her voice doesn’t betray all those painful sleepless nights caused by negative after negative test, blemishes on their domestic bliss.

“Eventually, we came to the conclusion that, for whatever reason - mixed biology, the Silence, one injury or bout of poisoning too many over the years - it just wasn’t possible for us.”

The Doctor bites an apology in place on her tongue in response to River’s words. She knows she wouldn’t thank her for it, but she’d always considered it her personal responsibility - particularly on Darillium - to see to it that her wife had everything she’d ever wanted. To not have the ability to fix this had felt like failing her. “I remember,” she replies softly.

River gives her one of those looks for a moment that only she can, the kind full of shared history and secrets known just to the two of them, before she takes a steadying breath and the grief in her eyes softens.

“Well, it turns out… we were wrong.” 

River extends the PDA out to her. She takes it and turns the screen to get a look before she can fully register the weight of her wife’s words.

Her mouth falls open with a pained gasp. It’s unmistakable, but she still clutches it until her knuckles turn white and brings it so close that her nose almost presses to the screen. There’s a person on it, or the start of one; curled up tightly inside River with two very small, but furiously beating, hearts.

“How?” she manages faintly. “I mean, I-” She gestures vaguely at herself, her voice shaking. “I - I’m not…”

“I was still on Darillium three months ago, remember,” River reminds her gently. She shakes her head with a soft huff, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth. “Twenty-four years, and this must have happened on one of our very last nights there.”

Her breath hitches on a sob, and she presses a fist to her mouth. A sudden thought strikes her that leaves her blood running cold and gripping onto the PDA, like it could slip through her fingers and be forever lost to space at any moment. “That means at the Library…”

River’s eyes are dark as they flicker up. “I’ve been trying very hard not to think about that,” she says gravely. “But - it seems fine. I’ve checked all the vitals - several times over.”

She nods, knowledge she had apparently kept squirrelled away for millennia making its way forward. “Time Lords - or whatever my species is, I suppose - are incredibly resilient when they’re developing. They’re encased by so much regeneration energy at this stage that nothing can touch them. It might have played a part in how I was able to bring you back,” she muses, her voice dropping to a whisper as she watches the screen. “A hidden spark of life.”

She marvels quietly at their baby, the beginnings of tiny hands and feet and the bump of a nose, until tears well in her eyes. “Hello,” she murmurs. This had been waiting for her since the day she’d met River; since that last agonising goodbye at sunrise, too. It feels with a sudden startling clarity like all those tangled timelines in between were always leading them to this.

“This is - this is _brilliant_.” A huge, dopey grin spreads across her face and she laughs joyfully, tears rolling down her face. River seems to deflate a little, as if she’d been holding in a breath all this time, and her smile has an uncertain shake to it.

“River.” She surges forwards to take her hand, clinging to it desperately. “I’m with you. We’re together in this. In everything, always. You know that, don’t you?"

Her wife’s bottom lip quivers. The Doctor thinks of her reading the scanner for the first time upstairs, alone, and squeezes her hand tightly. “What about our list?” she protests weakly, eyes glistening. “All those new places you wanted to see.”

“They’ll keep.” She nudges her fingers into her palm, stroking along the heartlines. “We have several lifetimes ahead of us now - plenty of time to see the universe. What’s setting aside twenty years or so? We’ve done it before.”

“I know,” she dismisses, shaking her head. “It’s not that. I had the best years of my life on Darillium; I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.” She pries her hand away, leaning the back of her head against the open door, and her gaze drifts to the supernova. “When we thought we couldn’t, all those years ago… I told myself that it was for the best,” she admits quietly. “I didn’t have a childhood - at least not one I’d ever wish on someone else. I hardly have what you’d call maternal instincts.” Her eyebrows knit together, and she looks back at her searchingly. “What if this isn’t who I am?”

“You’re River Song.” She upturns her palm, and presses the PDA back into her hand gently. “You can be whoever you want to be.”

River keeps the screen held flat between them and they bow their heads over it until their foreheads touch, falling silent as they watch their baby. “You trust me with this?” she asks softly. “With your child?”

She lifts her gaze to meet River’s eyes. “I trust you with everything.” 

Her wife’s features crinkle in fondness, and she laughs weakly. “All those years without me, and I’ve completely upended your life again in all of five minutes.”

“I wouldn’t have it another way.” The Doctor grins. “Besides, with all the time we have now… I sort of hoped that this would be somewhere in our future.” 

“You did?”

She shrugs. “I didn’t think it would be quite this soon, but it’s a good time for us to do this if ever there was one, isn’t it? No more spoilers; no more endings. Time for a new adventure.” 

“A new adventure,” River repeats softly. She puffs out her cheeks, rolling her shoulders. “Oh, I don’t think I’m ready for this. But I’m over two hundred - we could put it off for millennia and I doubt I’d feel any more prepared.”

“I’m well over two _thousand_ , and I’m terrified. That’s parenthood.” She slides a hand into her curls, stroking her temple with her thumb. “If you’re scared, just means you care about getting it right.” 

“I must really care, then. Oh.” She grimaces. “I feel sick.”

“Yeah, sorry.” She scrunches her nose apologetically. “Time-head pregnancies can be a bit rough.”

River throws her a half-hearted glare. “Time-head?”

“That’s what your mum called it.”

She laughs. “Well, that more than explains how I’ve been feeling. Not to mention the mood swings.”

“Uh… what mood swings?” she attempts meekly. 

River narrows her eyes before she looks back to the PDA and traces over the screen with her fingertips, a tiny smile ghosting across her face. “It is, isn’t it?”

“What?”

River beams. “Brilliant.”


	2. The Lookout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> River had assessed every corner of every known galaxy meticulously for its threat level and suitability for child-rearing. Ultimately, though, their soft spot for one place in particular had won out.

The Doctor feels like this is the first time she’s seen River with her face not stuck inside a book for weeks. 

Her wife had entered full Professor-mode since they’d found out about the baby, insisting on pouring every waking moment since into all the research she could find, the same way the Doctor would lose her for months at a time when she’d disappear after a dig in pursuit of knowledge about a newly discovered artefact. 

She had assessed every corner of every known galaxy meticulously for its threat level and suitability for child-rearing. Ultimately, though, their soft spot for one place in particular had won out.

“Home sweet home,” River says with a smile, the moment they step out of the Tardis and Darillium’s bespoke restaurant is waiting for them. The Doctor grins, breathing in the sweetness in the air. It smells different, like spring and sunshine.

“We didn’t make a reservation,” River whispers.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this.” She marches up to the waiter at reception. “Excuse me! Is the balcony table occupied?” 

“I’m afraid so, madam. The next slot is available in-” The Doctor brandishes her psychic paper with a flourish. The waiter squints at it. “Safety inspection?”

“That’s right! I have a warrant to, uh, inspect this restaurant! Immediately!”

“And you require access to... the balcony?”

“Yes, yes I do. Because. I’m from the specialist… balcony department.” She grins at the sudden strike of inspiration, ignoring the roll of River’s eyes. “The structural integrity of that balcony could be compromised. I’ll have to insist that it be completely cleared so me and my plucky assistant can carry out a thorough inspection to ensure it’s safe.” River clears her throat sharply. “Sorry, meant to say colleague.” 

“You meant to say _boss_.”

She nods sheepishly. “Yes, ma’am. Anyway. Balcony. Cleared. Yes?”

The waiter hesitates, shifting on the spot. “Uh - we had a safety inspection last month, nothing was brought to our attention-”

“You’re telling me you didn’t have a _follow-up_ safety inspection? That’s very interesting. That’s very interesting indeed. You getting this, boss?”

River crosses her arms next to her, raising a threatening eyebrow. “Oh, I’m getting it.”

The Doctor shrugs. “Fine by us. We’ll leave you be. Long as you think you can handle the lawsuit when your guests plummet to their deaths-”

“Oh my goodness!” The waiter scrambles to unhook the velvet rope leading to the balcony and ushers them in. 

The Doctor circles the blue-skinned couple seated at the table, shooing them urgently. “Sorry! Emergency balcony inspection. You have to evacuate immediately. So sorry.” She winces apologetically as they shuffle away, grumbling. 

She joins River at the railing, settling a protective hand at the small of her back. “It looks so different,” her wife breathes, her eyes bright.

“Yeah. It’s a completely different climate during the first couple of decades of daylight, apparently. In basic terms, we were here in winter; this is spring.”

“It’s beautiful. The first couple of decades? I never did check. How long are the days here?”

“Almost twice as long as the nights; forty-six years, to be exact. It’s been around half a decade since the sunrise we watched, so still another four till it sets again.”

River closes her eyes to listen to the Towers, smiling. “Still singing.”

“Always.” She nudges her nose into River’s hair. “It’s good to be back.”

“Uh, Inspector? Is everything ok?”

She jumps at the waiter’s voice, wheeling around. “What? Oh. Yeah. All good! Nothing to worry about. You couldn’t spare a couple of menus, could you?” She shrugs, scrunching her nose. “While we’re here.”

“ _Shameless_ , darling,” River admonishes as they sit at their old table, grinning wickedly. “I love it.”

She watches her wife’s gaze keenly as it takes in their old haunt, the way she looks out to the Towers and smiles like she’s seen an old friend. “You’re sure this is where you want to be?”

“Mmm.” River takes the hand that she stretches across the table, twining their fingers together. “For the first few years, at least. I’ve always felt so safe here. Lots of happy memories.” Her smile shrinks a little at the edges, and her next words all come tumbling out without breath between them. “You don’t have to stay, you know. I’d be more than happy to live here on my own - you can pop in on the weekends, between your travels-”

“Are we doing _this_ again?” she asks sharply, eyebrows quirking up.

Her wife had spent the first few weeks of their night here trying to convince her to leave, afraid that if she didn’t tell her to get back to the Tardis and the universe that the Doctor would do it herself the moment River’s back was turned. It had taken levels of affection she hadn’t believed her last face capable of to persuade her that twenty-four years was a promise she intended to deliver on.

“Well.” River shrugs. “Just thought I ought to check, seeing as last time we were here you already knew we’d done it. At least you have a choice this time.” She grows preoccupied shuffling the menus on the table. “No timelines you have to neatly tie off.”

“I always had a choice,” she counters softly - and she doesn’t just mean that final night, she means all of it, because even though her wife is all smiles she knows how she thinks and she won’t let these moments go past her, never again, without taking hold of them and breaking them apart. “I chose you. Every time.”

River’s eyes soften, and the Doctor scoffs. “And since when did I strike you as the kind of person who likes her timelines _neat_?” She pulls a face. “I worry you’ve got the wrong impression of me, wife.”

“Wrong impressions are the best kind.” River throws her a smirk, flicking through the menu. “Ooh, I wonder if they still have those Cheem berry cakes.”

The Doctor props her chin in her hand and watches her, silently vowing that if there’s anything she fancies that’s not on the menu she’ll personally scour the universe to get it on her plate.

“I’ve been thinking,” River announces after they order half the food on the menu, words that always make the Doctor bolt upright in anticipation when she says them, wondering whether she’s going to propose a new outfit or starting a war. She can never guess right the first time. 

“I know we lived in the Tardis last time and just budged the chameleon circuit, but seeing as we’ll still need it for family outings this time around… I think it might be time to go house-hunting.”

She gasps, hands balling into excited fists. “It’s been centuries since I lived in a house!”

River smiles. “Me too. We should do some asking around, while we’re here. See what’s available.”

“I know just the person we can ask.”

* * *

After three desserts in a row she pulls River down to the restaurant lobby, where there are stalls advertising everything from tours to the crimson waterfalls to hover-shuttle trips around the Towers.

“There he is!” The Doctor points to a bearded man sitting at a small table littered with flyers about holiday homes. “Alphonse junior. The son of the man I gave the Halassi Androvar to, all those years ago.”

River raises an eyebrow. “And he’s still working in construction? The family must be _loaded_.”

“Good to stay humble. ‘Scuse me! Hi!” She takes hold of the man’s hand and shakes it eagerly. “The Doctor.” She leans in, whispering. “I was the one who gave your dad the really big diamond to build all of this.”

“Oh!” The man draws back, looking her up and down. “My father described you as a grey-haired gentleman. With... furious eyebrows.”

She nods, grinning. “Yep. That’s me.”

“Oh. Well in that case, welcome back!”

“Really?” The Doctor tilts her head. “That was quick. I usually have to do a bit more convincing.”

“This place attracts species from all across the universe. Shape-shifters, androids with swappable heads - a simple biology change is like a new haircut to us locals.”

“Fair enough.” She ushers River over, pulling out a seat for her and perching on the edge of the table. “Speaking of locals, I don’t suppose we could ask your advice?”

“Of course. I’d be happy to help; my father always spoke so highly of you.”

“Aww. Well. I did give him the most expensive diamond in the universe, no questions asked.”

River curls a hand around her arm, chipping in pointedly. “We’re looking for a home here.”

“Oh! Wonderful news! Well, as I’m sure you’re aware, there are just a few settlements on the planet. Only the tourism workers live here, the majority of whom have been here for generations, and they tend to keep their homes in the family. And there are restrictions on new builds, to help conserve the planet’s natural beauty.”

“Of course.”

“But… there is one place.” He flips through holographic slides on a small projector, then sets it aside. “I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures of it on file. But it’s an old house, not too far from the Towers. Centuries old, in fact; it’s believed to be the first man-made structure built on the planet, long before the restaurant and the tourists came along. Darillium was left untouched, seen as sacred ground by our ancestors on neighbouring planets because of the Towers, and all the legends about their singing. They were seen as a symbol of hope and strength throughout the solar system; when wars broke out, enemies would try to come here, to destroy the Towers. So a lookout post was built, for guards to live in on the planet and protect them at all times.”

“Ooh.” The Doctor and River exchange glances. “Surprised we never came across it.”

“It’s quite remote - in the foothills of the western cliffs.” He pulls up a digital map to show them. “See - the Towers are here, and the lookout house overlooks them. More recently, it was used as a conservation base by scientists as a means of preserving Darillium’s natural environment.”

“Oh, the conservation centre!” River pipes up, sitting forwards to zoom in on the location. “That’s it! I used to drop off samples there from my digs when we last lived here. The building is breathtaking; I always wondered about the story behind it.”

“A new, modernised conservation centre was built in the village not long after sunrise. The lookout has been without inhabitants ever since. It’s a little worse for wear, but it’s available.”

“Can we see it?”

Alphonse Jr smiles. “Of course.”

* * *

“Wow.”

The house looks like it’s been here as long as the Towers, three storeys of stone piled on top of each other propped up by turrets and contained by a pointed roof that somehow all manage to stand up together. There’s moss sprawling the walls and shards of broken glass catch the sunlight in the window frames, but even in the state it’s in it looks fit for a queen. 

Just as well, she thinks as she watches River all but run from the Tardis down the overgrown pathway winding away from them until she reaches the front door, tracing her fingers over the knots in the wood.

“There’s so much history here,” she muses softly, pressing her palm flat against the weathered stone like she can hear its heartbeat.

“Archaeologist,” she teases, but it comes out more like a term of endearment. They let themselves in with the key Alphonse Jr had given them and wander into the foyer, taking in the emptiness.

“Can you feel that?” River asks quietly.

She squeezes her hand. “Yeah.”

Certain times and places around the universe carry a unique sensation to them that only they have the privilege of experiencing, the indescribable feeling of time passed and time to come shifting under their feet. This place is swirling and tingling with it - the way River had felt in the early days, rich with promise.

“What do you think?” she asks.

River takes a deep breath, then smiles. “It’s perfect. Or it will be.” She runs her finger along a glassless window sill, scattering rubble to the floor. “It’s been left alone far too long.”

“Nothing some fresh paint won’t fix. Maybe a spot of DIY. I’m great at DIY,” she proclaims. “I’m very handy.”

“I reserve _no_ complaints about your hands, darling, but I can hear the poor Tardis groan every time you insist on tinkering with her. Leave the DIY to me.”

They budge the rusty-hinged old doors open to peer into the empty spaces behind them, one after the other. “Lots of rooms,” River remarks, wandering to the winding staircase and peering up.

“This is the Song family base now!” she proclaims, resting her hands on River’s shoulders with a grin. Her voice echoes down the hallway and bounces back to them. “For all the generations to come. Wherever and whenever they end up in the universe, they’ll know they can always come here. Kids. Grandkids. Great-grandkids!”

River shoots her a wary glance. “Steady on. Let’s see if we can manage one first.”

“I’m sure we can fill these rooms in the meantime. How about a study each? Oh! A games room!”

River smirks. “And a room to lock you in, with any luck.”

She follows her out of the back door overlooking a garden gone wild with a crumbling wall surrounding it, where the Towers loom up ahead beyond the trees.

“Our turn to watch over then,” River muses, slipping her hand into the Doctor’s.

“They’ve done a lot for us.” She thinks of all the slow dances her last face enjoyed to their music, the way they’d sounded like they were soothing her at sunrise in the hours after River had left.

“No stars this time,” River laments softly.

“We can see all the stars we like,” she reminds her, flipping her Tardis key in the air before them. “Any time.”

River nods. “It’ll be good to have somewhere to come home to.” She turns to her, smoothing the backs of her fingers along her cheek. “For all of us.”

River is quite a bit taller than her now, even without the heels she tends to insist on, which can be annoying - trying to keep up with her had been tricky enough even when her legs were longer - but it does mean when they stand together her shoulder is now the perfect height for the Doctor to rest her head on. She closes her eyes, concentrating on the quiet hum of the Towers and the gentle rise and fall of River’s shoulder. 

She gets jostled abruptly when her wife sighs, and she lifts her head to peer at her suspiciously. “ _River_.”

She jumps, feigning innocence. “What?”

“I know that face,” she warns. “You said it was perfect.”

“It is!” She sighs again, impatient this time. “It’s nothing.”

“Tell me anyway?”

River’s eyes dart between hers, the way she does when she’s measuring up how easy it would be to lie. “It’s silly.”

The Doctor smiles. “Even better.”

“You have a knack for faces with puppy eyes, you know that?” She shakes her head, giving in. “It’s just that… I was just here.”

She tries to decipher her, eyebrows knitting together. “You said you wanted Darillium to be the place.”

“And I do. I do.” She shakes her head. “What I mean is… I was _just_ here. Four months ago I had to say goodbye to you, and our life together, for what I thought was the last time. Then I _died_. Rather horribly. Now I’m back here again, with you, and you’ve been through so much, and we’re somehow having a baby, and by the time we get this place in shape we’ll be parents…” She trails off, sighing softly. “There’s so much we need to prepare for. And it’s wonderful, of course it is. Only… we’re already onto the next terrifying adventure. And it feels like I’ve barely had a minute to breathe.” She smiles weakly. “Though I suppose that’s nothing new with us. I just thought that things might be a bit less… mad, this time around.”

She thinks for a moment, twisting her mouth to the side, and then grabs River’s hand. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“Spoilers!”

She hears her laugh. “And here was me thinking we had none left.”

“Oh, yeah. Ok then - surprise!”

She leads her back through the house and out of the front door, straight into the Tardis. Hopping up onto the wraparound deck she flips the chalkboard over, revealing all the place names they’d scrawled across it in the days before they’d known about the baby.

She grabs River and steers her over to it, wrapping her arms around her waist. “Pick one.” 

She raises a dubious eyebrow. “What?”

She gestures at the board enthusiastically. “Pick one! And we’ll go, right now. For a little holiday!”

River scoffs. “We can’t go for a _little holiday_ now!”

“Course we can! We have all the time in the world.”

“We pointedly don’t,” River argues with a hand on her stomach, leaning back in her arms all the same.

“Just pick one!”

River rolls her eyes. “ _Fine_. Hastings.”

“As in... Battle Of?”

“I’ve always wanted to see it! My dad helped out King Harold - he made it sound so much fun. I have just the sword for the occasion.”

She gives her a stern look that has absolutely no effect. “New rule: no combat zones. And no _swords_.”

“I never agreed to that!” She huffs. “ _So_ overprotective.”

“Pregnant with my _baby_.”

The corners of her mouth quirk up. “Alright, no combat zones if you insist. Well, that’s most of my ideas out of the window.” 

An idea strikes her, and she claps her hands together. “Have you ever been to the Elysian Seventeen?”

River arches an eyebrow. “I have not.”

“Best leisure planet in the universe, according to the Andromeda Tribune. Built with the sole purpose of relaxation. Seventeen artificial beaches. Full spa works. All-you-can-eat service ‘round the clock. Temple Beach, eat your heart out!”

River bites her lip. “Tempting.”

“Then let’s give in to temptation.” A suggestive note slips involuntarily into her voice - it’s the first time she’s heard this voice in particular sound like that, and River’s eyes light up.

She bops the tip of her nose and twirls away, plotting the coordinates into the console. “All that’s left to do is slip into something more comfortable and double-check that the resort isn’t a cover for a toxic wasteland filled with the horribly mutated and murderous remains of the human race, and we’re good to go!”

River winces. “I think this face might need a therapist.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the house I used as a visual reference for the lookout, if anyone is interested: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/7388786858431288/

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading.  
> This is one of the resources I've found useful at this time - whether it's through making donations, signing petitions or educating ourselves, we can all do our part to help.  
> https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/resources-supporting-black-lives-matter-movement-creative-industry-010620


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